Sing to me, my monkey of music (Mmm… Marginalia #27)

From the lower right margin of a late fifteenth century book of hours, Bodleian Library MS Douce 266:

And as a bonus, I’ve translated the accompanying text:

CHRISTINE
In sleep he sang to me
In dreams he came
That voice which calls to me
And speaks my name
And do I dream again?
For now I find
The phantom monkey of the opera manuscript is there,
Inside my mind

PHANTOM MONKEY
Sing once again with me
Our strange duet
My power over you
Grows stronger yet
And though you turn from me
to glance behind
The phantom monkey of the opera manuscript is there
Inside your mind

In related news, I heard recently that Andrew Lloyd Webber has entered a development contract with a video game studio to bring his vision of dancing cats and roller-skating Jesuses (Jesui?) to the big screen (that’s hooked to the X-Box). I think my advice for the adaptation is obvious.